Vietnamese coffee attempt #1

I tried to use my Vietnamese coffee maker (photo here) this morning to brew a tasty cup of ca phe and revisit my Saigon days (thought it's about 32° F here, not C!) but it was not to be. Two attempts yielded a watery brew filled with coffee grounds, and I ended up falling back on my Senseo and adding condensed milk. It tasted more like strong coffee with milk and sugar -- which I'm not so much a fan of -- rather than the delicious melted coffee ice cream flavor of Vietnamese coffee (if melted coffee ice cream were warm, since I didn't use ice, since as I said above, it's cold here.)

Anyway, I realize I was stupid. First of all, I should have looked online (doh!) because there are plenty of instructions for making Vietnamese iced coffee out there. Second of all, I didn't use my coffee maker properly. Apparently I was supposed to sandwich the grounds between the bottom of the cup and the press apparatus, kind of like a French press. In my non-caffeinated state, I just put the grounds on top of the press, so the liquid pretty much just zoomed through the whole thing and into the cup. Now that I know, I'll try again. But that will have to be tomorrow. I'm too shaky from the two shots of espresso and four tablespoons of condensed milk I've already had to drink any more coffee today!

Posted on December 1, 2005

copyright © 1999-2009 Megnut LLC      archives | about | contact | home